With the National Restaurant Show in the rearview mirror, Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality, welcomed a guest co-host to the podcast, Heather Lalley, managing editor of sister publications Restaurant Business, Supermarket News and CSP Daily News.
With an expert in the retail space joining the show, Bret and Heather discussed the increasing presence of drinks made with cannabis in that channel. There was also an entire section at the Restaurant Show dedicated to those drinks, which both hosts visited with enthusiasm, and Heather also sat in on a presentation on the potentially thorny legal issues around cannabis, regulations of which vary from state to state.
They also discussed some of the plant-based options at the show, which are of particular importance to Heather, who’s a pescatarian. Often the meatless options she’s presented with at meals, though tasty, tend to lack protein, being made with ingredients such as cauliflower and mushrooms.
Bret discussed some of the new snacks and drinks that appeared on chain restaurant menus recently, observing that they can boost incremental sales. Of particular interest, he said, were the new mozzarella “boomerangs” at Outback Steakhouse, and the fried pickle chips that Shake Shack just introduced.
Pastry chef Susan Bae
Then Bret shared an interview with Susan Bae, the executive pastry chef of Moon Rabbit, a Vietnamese-inspired restaurant in Washington, D.C. Give a listen.
Menu Talk is a collaboration between Restaurant Business Senior Menu Editor Pat Cobe and Bret Thorn, senior food & beverage editor of Nation’s Restaurant News and Restaurant Hospitality. You can subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts.
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